Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Lean Horse 100 Mile

It's official I am registered to run the 100 mile at Lean Horse; back for round 2 of the 100 mile race! Tom and Nancy will be joining me on the trip again and Tom is willing to pace me the last 30 miles. How lucky could I be?

Running 100 miles was something I didn't think I wanted to attempt again. Especially in the middle of the night at Vermont;I promised myself then that if I finished I would never have to do it again. Well it's like all races as we get further away from them we start to say to ourselves "next time...." That's when we know that we are in trouble because we'll be back; we're planning again.

My "next time" has been figuring out my problem in the middle of the night when I literally was asleep on my feet while I was running down the road! That was one thing that I could never have predicted would happen to me. Since then I've been doing a little research and planning how I will approach it again. More protein in my intake during the day, and if it happens, rather than waste the time on the course trying to fight it I will take that nap much earlier.

At the Superior 50 mile this past year I did gain a bit of hope that I might be able to overcome the issue. It wasn't until we were on our way to the start line of the race, riding in the dark with my headlamp on my head, that I realised that I would have to face the night again. I almost had a panic attack right there but it was too late to even think about it because the bus driver told us she was not going back to where she had picked us up as she was about to drop us off at the trail head. As the day progressed on the course I began to forget about running into the night and then when it happened none of the issues was there. I was wide awake, mentally alert, feeling strong and enjoyed the change into night.

So I'm back at it, and this time is a little different, I will be running to raise funds to be donated to the American Heart Association in honor of my cousin Melissa who passed away in October. Melissa suffered a heart attack that took her life. She was only 45. She left behind a husband, son, and many friends and family members who loved her dearly.

3 comments:

That's great, Alicia. I wish you all the best in training for Lean Horse. In fact, you started this blog in November with a recap of your Vermont 100, so it sounds like the seeds of another 100 may have already been germinating for a while.

Quote of the day

About Me

When Passion, Profession & Life Become One

I am a local Director of Go Red For Women with the American Heart Assocation. My passion outside of my work is running trails and volunteering. As the Director of Go Red For Women my job is to raise the awareness that heart disease is the #1 killer of women today. I speak daily about the disparities in our health care and encourage women to take charge of their heart health. I joined the American Heart Association because Heart Disease was very prevalent in my family. But even still, like many women, I thought I had to be concerned about others, mainly the generation ahead of me. Until just recently when my 45 year old cousin Melissa suffered a massive heart attack that took her life. My plight now is to raise funds for the American Heart Association, to be given in my cousin's name, and once again run 100 miles but this time for Melissa. The 1st time I ran 100 miles, in the middle of the night I couldn't think of good reason to be out here save for the friends who were supporting me, and my reason to stay the course became so I never had to do it again. But running for Melissa, creating awareness, for me is a really good reason to do this again.